If you want to send an email or text message to one of your contacts, you probably head into the contacts app to do so. In fact, you can contact your friends from nearly any app that accesses them, just by tapping their contact photo.

Here's a pretty nifty Android feature: if you tap on a contact's photo, no matter what app you're in, you can get quick access to call, message, email, or even chat with one of your contacts. This is especially nice if, say, you're sending someone a text message but decide that message would work better in an email. All you need is two taps to open up a new email message, without ever going back to the home screen. Check out the video above for a quick demonstration.